Meet Our Web & Discovery Librarian

The front of Hannon Library at dusk

Hannon Library is prouTom Dodson sits at a table wearing a jacket, glasses, and a smiled to welcome Tom Dodson, our Web & Discovery Librarian. Tom is a writer, editor, and front-end web developer interested in interaction design, visual design, information architecture, and writing for the web. He’s also a research and instruction librarian with subject knowledge in the humanities. He worked at Harvard Library for nine years, first as a program coordinator for the Office of Scholarly Communication, and then as a web developer and designer.

He holds graduate degrees from the Ohio State University, Kent State University, and the University of Iowa, where he was an Iowa Arts Fellow at the Iowa Writers’ Workshop in fiction. His short stories have appeared in Gulf Coast, Consequence Magazine, Chicago Quarterly Review, Beloit Fiction Journal, and elsewhere. His story “Keeping,” forthcoming in The Missouri Review, was awarded the 2020 Jeffrey E. Smith Editors’ Prize.

As Hannon Library’s Web & Discovery Librarian, Tom leads the development and management of the Hannon Library website, the ExLibris Primo discovery layer, LibGuides, and other library web platforms. Art and art history, creative writing, and theatre arts are Tom’s subject liaison areas, in which he provides faculty-requested instruction sessions and serves as collection coordinator. Tom also provides research assistance, so you might catch him on research chat or in a one-on-one Zoom consultation. To get in touch with Tom, you can email him at dodsont@sou.edu.

What to Expect During Your First Tutoring Appointment

Laptop with text editor open, notebook and pen, and blue coffee cup

Tutoring sessions are currently all hosted on Zoom. The first time you meet with a tutor from the Hannon Library Tutoring Center, the tutor will begin the session by gathering some information about your project or assignment and where you are in the process of completing that assignment. If you have already shared any documents or drafts of your paper, the tutor will likely go through those with you as well. After they have a clear understanding of the assignment and how they can best help you during the session, the tutor will provide the requested support.

In addition to content, tutors can help with organization, share time-management techniques and even provide tips on note-taking. Tutors will not ever complete work for you, but they are there to support you as you complete your work, answering your questions and providing the guidance you need to be successful. Toward the end of the session, the tutor will help you make a plan for any next steps or additional work needing to be done and assist with making followup appointments, if necessary. Tutoring appointments are typically all scheduled on an individual basis; however, the drop-in tutoring sessions may be more of a group environment.

To book an appointment with a tutor or view times for drop-in tutoring sessions, visit our Tutoring LibGuide.